Southeastern program named 'Nursing School of the Year'
Contact: Rene Abadie
1/27/06
NURSING SCHOOL OF THE YEAR -- Admiring the Nightingale Award for “Nursing School of the Year” are Donnie Booth, left, dean of the Southeastern Louisiana University College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and Barbara Moffett, head of the School of Nursing. The award is presented annually by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation. This is the second time the Southeastern program has received the award in the past five years.
HAMMOND -- For the second time in five years, the Southeastern Louisiana University nursing program has received a Nightingale Award as the “Nursing School of the Year” by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation.
The organization announced the recognition at their fifth annual Nightingale Awards Gala for Nursing and Healthcare held recently in Baton Rouge.
“This is truly a significant achievement and honor. To be recognized twice as the outstanding nursing school in the state in the five years that this award has been presented attests to the quality of nursing education Southeastern offers and role that the university is playing in helping to address this vital part of our region’s health care workforce,” said John Crain, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Donnie Booth, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said nursing programs are evaluated for the Nightingale Award by a wide range of criteria, including accreditation status, innovations in education and teaching, nursing examination passage rate, and comments solicited from graduates, faculty and area employers.
The competition is evaluated by a panel of out-of-state judges who reviewed the nominations submitted by nursing programs throughout the state.
“We are very excited about this honor, because I know the efforts that our faculty and students put in daily to achieve outstanding quality in the teaching and learning processes,” said Barbara Moffett, head of the School of Nursing.
“Most of our graduates are employed in the surrounding parishes in southeast Louisiana,” Moffett said. “They are prepared to enter the job market immediately, having gone through a rigorous academic program and significant clinical experiences in area hospitals and other health care settings. These graduates are helping to address the serious nursing shortage that exists here in Louisiana.”
In addition to citing the Southeastern program as tops in the state, in recent years the nursing association has also recognized two Southeastern nursing faculty members as educators of the year and one as nursing researcher of the year.
Established in 1963, the Southeastern nursing program has nearly 2,000 majors and is currently assisting 164 displaced nursing students from Hurricane Katrina to complete their education. Southeastern annually graduates approximately 140 undergraduates and 15 to 18 masters level nurses in functional areas such as nurse educator, administrator and nurse practitioner. The graduate program is offered as part of an intercollegiate consortium.
Recognized by the University of Louisiana System as one of Southeastern’s “Areas of Excellence,” the baccalaureate and graduate programs are accredited by the National league for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC).
In December, it was announced that students in Southeastern’s nursing program recorded one of the highest passage rates in the state for the past year for baccalaureate programs on the national licensure examination for registered nurses
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